Apparently, until they got word of their mistake and replaced it, the Bing home page image was of Minneapolis’s collapsed 3rd Street bridge.

Liveside.net has the full story.

Microsoft’s official comment on the topic:

“The Bing homepage image was updated shortly after 1:00pm PDT, after it was brought to our attention that the previous image of Minneapolis included the I-35 bridge which collapsed on Aug. 1, 2007. We apologize to anyone who may have been offended.”

Kind of mind-boggling, considering that Bing is front page news right now because of the Yahoo deal.  What’s next, I wonder?  Might I suggest a nice shot of a Chernobyl cooling tower?  Or, perhaps just a nice tasteful shot of the Superdome would be a more subtle way to stir those awful memories.